Interesting Pokémon: Kanto Edition

The original lineup of potential friends. All 151 of them. And in the end, about half of them eventually became useful for players to actually use. Others were considered useless once a player gained experience. | Source

Long Runner

Pokémon has been around for a long time. The original Pokémon Red and Blue games came out in 1996 by Nintendo. Most of the kids who bought that game and other forms of merchandise, including myself, are adults now. And Pokémon is a franchise that is still going strong. Mostly because most of the plots were:

The player played a silent protagonist child.

That child got to pick a starter Pokémon that he or she could with him or her to explore the world safely.

The player would then get caught-up in some amazing adventure. One that included defeating some evil organization or helping in saving the world from some disaster.

But it is important to remember the first incarnation of this series. Especially since the first set of the aforementioned Pokémon were what helped franchise to what it is today. Taking place in the Kanto region, these were Pokémon that were based on real animals and certain aspects of real life that were either awesome or scary. These Pokémon have had supplementary data about their abilities or habits that made them either sources of awesome art by fans or terrifying interpretations by older fans who were able to come to scary conclusions about the implications about some pieces of data. And some Pokémon have been so useful and so popular than fans have made Youtube videos out of some characters.

Paras and Parasect. Note the somewhat dead eys Parasect has. There is a reason for that. | Source

Paras/Parasect #046/#047

Paras:

Grows by sucking nutrients from the roots of trees. The mushrooms on its back grow by drawing extracts from the bug host.

It is doused with mushroom spores when it is born. As its body grows, mushrooms sprout from its back.

Paras has parasitic mushrooms growing on its back called tochukaso. They grow large by drawing nutrients from this Bug Pokémon host. They are highly valued as a medicine for extending life.

Parasect:

The bug host is drained of energy by the mushrooms on its back. They appear to do all the thinking.

When nothing's left to extract from the bug, the mushrooms on its back leave spores on the bug's egg.

Paras and Parasect were interesting because they were references to an actual event involving bugs and spores. In he insect world there are funguses called cordyceps that essentially take over a host bug. Becoming the brain of the host, the cordyceps moves the insect somewhere where the cordyceps spreads its spores to make more cordyceps. Which kills the host insect. Parasect, fortunately, does not have to deal with a fungus that kills it. Rather, the fungus on its back simply takes over the body and supercedes the Parasect's actual brain. And judging by data about Parasect, the spores of the mushroom are what caused Paras to have the two mushrooms growing out of its back in the first place. Creating an endless cycle of fungal mind control.

A picture of Drowzee and Hypno. Hypno is the one with the pendulum. | Source

Hypno #097

This section will focus on one Pokémon. Hypno, the evolved form of Drowzee. Some pieces of data on Hypno were:

Avoid eye contact if you come across one. It will try to put you to sleep by using its pendulum.

When it is very hungry, it puts humans it meets to sleep, then it feasts on their dreams.

Seeing its swinging pendulum can induce sleep in three seconds, even in someone who just woke up.

Hypno holds a pendulum in its hand. The arcing movement and glitter of the pendulum lull the foe into a deep state of hypnosis. While this Pokémon searches for prey, it polishes the pendulum.

It carries a pendulum-like device. There once was an incident in which it took away a child it hypnotized.

Hypno is a Psychic Pokémon. This means that it uses attacks that involved one's mind. And as its English name suggests, Hypno had its own pendulum which it used on its enemies to put them to sleep. And eat their dreams. Which, in Pokémon's rules in the game, also hurts the victim. For some reason. But here was where Hypno gets somewhat creepy. As some entries suggested, Hypno fed on people's dreams. Or in one entry, where it apparently kidnapped a child to be used as a source of food. Now, while Hypno may be based on a benevolent mythological creature in Japan, that did not stop some people to immediately interpret Hypno as a creepy child stalker. There was even a song based on this creepy idea:

Come little children, come with meSafe and happy you will beAway from your homes, now let us runWith Hypno, you'll have so much fun

Oh, little children, please don't cryHypno wouldn't hurt a flyBe free, be free be free to playCome down in my cave with me to stay

Oh, little children, please don't squirmThose ropes, I know, will hold you firmHypno tells you this is trueBut sadly, Hypno lied to you

Oh, little children, you mustn't leaveYour families for you will grieveTheir minds will unravel at the seamsAllowing me to haunt their dreams

But surely, all of you must knowThat it is time for you to goOh, little children, you weren't cleverNow you shall stay with me forever

So now not only does Hypno become a powerful asset when fighting, now it becomes a creepy child stalker as well. You know, for kids.

Dragonite #149

It can circle the globe in just 16 hours. It is a kindhearted Pokémon that leads lost and foundering ships in a storm to the safety of land.

Very few people ever see this Pokémon. Its intelligence is said to match that of humans.

This marine Pokémon has an impressive build that lets it freely fly over raging seas without trouble.

It flies! It shoots Hyper Beams! And it's so freaking adorable! It's a bruiser and your new best buddy all in one. | Source

Dragonite was unique when Pokémon first came out in 1996 because it was the only Pokémon, other than the other two Pokémon that eventually evolved into Dragonite, that had its own exclusive type. Dragonite and its two pre-evolutions, Dratini and Dragonair, were the only Dragon-types in the original Pokémon game. And as a nod to the fact that dragons in mythology were portrayed as overpowered obstacles that people had to defeat to reach some goal, Dragonite's stats were so overpowered that the player needed to have both a very powerful team and knowledge about a Dragon-type's weaknesses. Especially since in the original Pokémon game, you had to fight three of them at once to beat the main story of the game. Luckily, Dragon-types are weak against Ice-types or other Dragon-types so one strategy most people used was to get a Dratini and get their own Dragonite.

Pokémon has had many interesting creatures over the years. Especially when it started in 1996. But while some of the aforementioned Pokémon were interesting because they looked neat or looked powerful, some Pokémon were interesting because they looked scary or were based on something that was horrible to think about.

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